Testimony showing that Horrific Torture, Starvation and even Human Experimentation occurs in North Korea to Christians and other Political Prisoners.

What is happening in North Korea?

Five or six elderly Christians were lined up and forced
to deny their Christianity and accept the Juche
ideology of the North Korean State. The selected
prisoners all remained silent at the repeated command
for conversion. The security officers became
furious by this and killed them by pouring molten
iron on them one by one," explained an escapee
who had witnessed the torture and martyrdom
of Christians who refused to renounce Christ in
North Korea’s infamous death camps.

Two hundred thousand prisoners, many of whom
are Christian, are held in six large Soviet-styled
forced labor camps spread across the country.
These gulags, dubbed "re-education" centers
by the North Korean government, have been
the final resting place of some 400,000 North
Koreans in the past three decades. Human rights
agencies suggest that the number of Christians
detained or killed in the camps is near 100,000.
Relatively little is known about the camps as
few have survived to speak of the atrocities they
suffered and until recently camps were sealed
off from international scrutiny. However, recent
satellite imagery and the testimonies of a few escapees
reveal horrors similar to those witnessed
during the Holocaust where beatings, torture,
starvation, slave labor, and chemical experimentation
characterized daily living.

2014 - North Korea Guilty According to United Nations

Powerful testimony from survivors and escapees has prooved effective in convincing the UN that North Korea is guilty of crimes against humanity. For most recent information view the following two reports from the UN. What follows these reports is information that has been compiled from various other witnesses. The reports below detail:

Violations of the right to food

The full range of violations associated with prison camps

Torture and inhuman treatment

Arbitrary arrest and detention

Discrimination, in particular in the systemic denial and violation of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms

Violations of the freedom of expression

Violations of the right to life

Violations of the freedom of movement

Enforced disappearances, including in the form of abductions of nationals of other States

See on Video

See Video of Human Rights in North Korea: Excerpts from the Public Hearings of the Commission of Inquiry (23mins)

Articles of Interest from the Report

60. In the political prison camps of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the inmate population has been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide. The commission estimates that hundreds of thousands of political prisoners have perished in these camps over the past five decades. The unspeakable atrocities that are being committed against inmates of the kwanliso political prison camps resemble the horrors of camps that totalitarian States established during the twentieth century.

61. Although the authorities in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea deny the existence of the camps, this claim was shown to be false by the testimonies of former guards, inmates and neighbours. Satellite imagery proves that the camp system continues to be in operation. While the number of political prison camps and inmates has decreased owing to deaths and some releases, it is estimated that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are currently detained in four large political prison camps.

76. These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation. The commission further finds that crimes against humanity are ongoing in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea because the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place.

Report of the commission of inquiry on human
rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea -­ A/HRC/25/63

Report of the detailed findings of the
commission of inquiry on human rights in the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea -­
A/HRC/25/CRP.1

Lee Soon-ok

For six years, Lee was imprisoned in Kaechon concentration camp where she has reported witnessing forced abortions, infanticide, several instances of rape, public executions, testing of biological weapons on prisoners , extreme malnutrition and various other forms of inhuman conditions and depravity.It is not clear why she was released, although Lee suspects that the same officials responsible for jailing her were themselves the subject of investigations by higher ranking members of North Korea's government.

Lee described an experiment in which 50 healthy women prisoners were selected and given poisoned cabbage leaves. All of the women were required to eat the cabbage, despite cries of distress from those who had already eaten. All 50 died after 20 minutes of vomiting blood and anal bleeding. Refusing to eat the cabbage would allegedly have meant reprisals against them and their families.

Ahn Myung Chul

Human Experimentation

Former prison guard Ahn Myung Chul has reported that prisoners were used for "medical operation practice" for young doctors. According to him, these doctors would practice surgery on prisoners without anesthesia. He also described deliberate efforts to study physical resistance by starving prisoners to death. According to him,

The people who carry out these executions and these experiments all drink before they do it. But they are real experts now; sometimes they hit prisoners with a hammer, on the back of the head. The poor prisoners then lose their memory, and they use them as zombies for target practice. When the Third Bureau is running out of subjects, a black van known as "the crow" turns up and picks out a few more prisoners, sowing panic among the rest. The crow comes about once a month and takes forty or fifty people off to an unknown destination.

Beatings and Torture

They are not treated as human beings; they are just like dogs or pigs....There is no instruction how to beat them, but the officers tell us to beat or kill the re-settlers without responsibility. Therefore, when someone is working in the field, the guard tells the prisoner to come over here, if the prisoner comes slowly, then it can be a cause of beating...I saw numerous prisoners killed, especially by beating.

Sometimes I used to drink alcohol together and chat together with the people in the division of torture, and when the officer in the division is in a good mood, the prisoners will be treated mildly. And when he had an argument with his wife at home, then the torture will be severe. And I heard many times that eyeballs were taken out by beating. And I saw that by beating the person, the muscle was damaged and the bone was exposed, outside, and they put salt on the wounded part. At the beginning I was frightened when I witnessed it, but it was repeated again and again, so my feelings were paralyzed.

Kwon Hyuk - former military attaché at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing

Kwon Hyuk, who has changed his name, was the former military attaché at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. He was also the chief of management at Camp 22. ... Hyuk claims he now wants the world to know what is happening.

Gas Chambers Today

'I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber,' he said. 'The parents, son and and a daughter. The parents were vomiting and dying, but till the very last moment they tried to save kids by doing mouth-to-mouth breathing.'

Hyuk has drawn detailed diagrams of the gas chamber he saw. He said: 'The glass chamber is sealed airtight. It is 3.5 metres wide, 3m long and 2.2m high_ [There] is the injection tube going through the unit. Normally, a family sticks together and individual prisoners stand separately around the corners. Scientists observe the entire process from above, through the glass.'

He explains how he had believed this treatment was justified. 'At the time I felt that they thoroughly deserved such a death.

Camp 22, North Korea’s largest concentration
camp, lies in the remote northeastern corner of
North Korea, close to the border of Russia and
China. Though isolated in the mountainside, satellite
photographs reveal that Camp 22 is roughly
the size of Los Angeles and imprisons some
fifty thousand men, women and children.
No one is safeguarded from the camp’s horrors,
including children. Babies are said to be aborted
by salt water injected into the mother’s womb or
strangled upon delivery. The few children who
survive birth in the camps or who are arrested
along with their family at a young age are expected
to work like everyone else and subjected
to the same treatment. A former prison guard
reported that 1,500 to 2,000 prisoners, mostly
children, die each year from malnutrition alone.
Although awareness of gulag atrocities is growing,
there has been little pressure on North
Korea by the international committee to close
the camps. Some fear that North Korea might
harden its stance on nuclear power and other
issues if challenged on the brutality of its political
prisons. The West is once again siting idly by
while a ruthless dictator carries out mass murder
and oppresses an entire nation.

Other Defectors

(Dated 2002)

Defectors have smuggled out documents that appear to reveal how methodical the chemical experiments were. One stamped 'top secret' and 'transfer letter' is dated February 2002. The name of the victim was Lin Hun-hwa. He was 39. The text reads: 'The above person is transferred from ... camp number 22 for the purpose of human experimentation of liquid gas for chemical weapons.'

Most are imprisoned because their relatives are believed to be critical of the regime. Many are Christians, a religion believed by Kim Jong-il to be one of the greatest threats to his power. According to the dictator, not only is a suspected dissident arrested but also three generations of his family are imprisoned, to root out the bad blood and seed of dissent.

Hear Recent Reports in the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea report

The North Korean Response

My attempt at initial communication

The North Koreans have opened up an offical forum where you can seek to gain friendship with the DPRK, the following conversation occured between us there. The forum can be accessed from the North Korean offical website. http://www.korea-dpr.com/

Me (20 May 2014):

Hi,

As I stated else where I am a Christian. I am aware that in North Korea the Christian faith is not received very well. With many Christians being detained against their will in reeducation camps, some of the stories I have heard from these camps are quite horrific, with torture, overwork, and starvation. I was wondering if this was due to a misunderstanding of the purpose of Christians. As a Christian I do not seek to destabilize the North Korean government, I seek to bless it, to do good for you and your people. I just realize that if I was a Christian in North Korea, I would not have freedom to share my belief with others. I have found faith to be a very exciting part of my life, and don't understand what is so wrong with it. In terms of governments Christians are commanded to obey their leaders. As the following scriptures from the bible show:

Titus 3:1 Remind believers to submit to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, and to be ready to do any honorable kind of work. to speak evil of no one, not quarrelsome

Romans 13:1 Obey the rulers who have authority over you. Only God can give authority to anyone, and he puts these rulers in their places of power. People who oppose the authorities are opposing what God has done, and they will be punished.

Romans 13:5-7 But you should obey the rulers because you know it is the right thing to do, and not just because of God's anger. You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God's servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters. Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.

The bible also adds a level of balance to life, asking us to think of other people as more important than ourselves. And to treat others in the same way we would like to be treated. Which is with kindness and security. What is the current stance of Christianity in North Korea. Would you consider softening your approach to Christians, who teach obedience.

Please do not believe all you read about DPRK by Western sources. All religions are free to practice their faith in DPRK as long as they do not indulge in seditious activities. Rev. Don Borrie of your neigbouring NZ has visited Korea many times and remains a friend of DPRK.

Me (21 May 2014)

I also seek the friendship of the DPRK, but I feel that this trust must be earned on my part, I hope I can earn that trust.

Again I do not wish to be disrespectful, however I am very conflicted. I have researched the Rev. Don Borrie, and it indeed appears that he is a good friend to your nation. However around 5 years ago I was met by a person who has been to the camps in your country, and she reported that Christians felt they were being detained there for no reason other than their faith. This meeting led me to believe other reports by other organizations. Now that you have spoken to me, I feel I need to re-evaluate the meeting, and evidence. As a favor to me could you look into the claims that some Christians are not being detained for seditious behaviors, but purely for speaking about their faith. I will also begin to research some of these claims that have been made to me, to check the validity of them, with the goal of clearing your name before the church. Also in the attitude of friendship I will remove all references to these conversation and claims of abuse from my website as I don't wish to spread miss information about your country and attitude towards believers.

Me (22 May 2014)

I have been putting some thought into this issue. I feel I can trust the testimony of the person who was in the camps. She spoke to us about the lack of food, and poor living conditions in the camps, and how the people were suffering. I guess I understand as a Nation that tough justice helps to keep the peace, and really I don't have a solution to the balance between the need for order and compassion to wards people. However the person I spoke to who had been in the camps did speak to Christians who had be detained purely due to expressing their faith. As you have stated, you are not opposed to faith as long as it is not seditious. What I would love would be if as a Nation you could introduce some education into the law enforcement area to distinguish between expression of faith, and sedition. I feel that no fault has been to you as a nation, but a poor understanding of what faith is may have lead to the imprisonment in harsh conditions of citizens of the DPRK that were not intending to act in sedition, people that as you have stated should never have been detained. It may seem inconvenient, but I feel that in order to investigate the claims made of unlawful/accidental imprisionment that a search be done in the camps for Christians who may have been unlawfully detained. I am sure we as people can forgive this mistake, and do not seek retribution for errors. As Christians say:

Eph 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

KFA is a platform for extending friendship with DPRK, so stick to that arena only, thanks.

Me (22 May 2014)

I am not so sure I wish to speak well of your nation if you can not protect your own citizens. A constitution that does not protect people is useless. And why should I try to build your wealth if all you will use it for is for oppression. The stories I have heard out of these camps is deplorable, torture, chemical experimentation. Soldier pouring burring lead down the throats of elderly Christians. Is that human, or demonic. I came here expecting reason but all I get is it is not our problem.

My notions were to protect the innocent, if you can't do that well I can't justify the guilty. I will not be returning to this forum.

What you can do to help

Very few people know these things are happening, if they did they would try to do something to help. So the primary thing you can do is make people aware. We suggest:

Popularity is universal, even the North Korean President has visits from Dignitories, Business People, and famous sports/movie stars. Try to engadge these groups telling them of the problem and asking them to engadge the Leader of North Korea, advocating the casue for compassion.

Why did this happen

The system of North Korea was based heavily on Socialism, and polictical dominace. Borrowing many Starlinist ideals, the full history of the Nation is too long to put here, but currently the nation is indocctrinated from children to revere the Leader of North Korea, and the past leaders. Their ruler is the center of their world. People must hang a photo of him in their homes. He is to them the ultimate movie star. If you can change him you can change the Nation. So pray for him, bless him, do good to him, and talk to him about the need for compassion. Demonstrate to him what you believe. Show love compassion and kindness to him.

For the Christian the main reason why they are percicuted is the North Korean government is atheistic they don't believe in God, and anyone who believes anything different to the Supreme Leader is seen as a risk to the dominace of the Leader in society. Atheism is also one of the primary reasons why there is a problem in North Korean society, the society is 100% Godless, it is man centered, or more specifically centered on one man. Kim Il-sung who has been quoted to have stated regarding religion: “Religion is a kind of myth. Whether you believe Jesus or Buddha, it essentially believes a myth [sic].” He had also further directed that, “we cannot take religious people to the socialist society” and “religious people should die to cure their habit”.

Although it sounds good in theory to be focused on man alone, once you remove God, who tells us to love others, telling us to be kind, and generous, then all you have is a vacume, there is no moral absolutes, no loving God to obey (yet you need to obey the right God, the God of love Jesus), in North Korea the leadership is revered above all, with all atheism just self become important, where as Jesus says to think of others before yourself. Atheism seeks to remove God, but every society that has become atheistic has percecuted its own people. So stand up for the gospel in schools, institution, Universities, and countries, become a Christian.

Jesus said, Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Resources on North Korea Gulags

Report of the commission of inquiry on human
rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea